Cheese making has relied on dairy milks as the major ingredient for more than 4000 years. Dairy cheese is made from curds formed from dairy milk. Dairy milks can readily be made to form curds suitable for making cheese by contacting the dairy milk with rennet (an aspartic protease which cleaves kappa-casein) at mildly acidic pH. Some cheeses, e.g., cream cheese, ricotta, cottage cheese and paneer, are made without rennet. In the absence of rennet, dairy cheese may be induced to curdle with acid (e.g., lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) or a combination of heat and acid. Acid coagulation can also occur naturally from starter culture fermentation. The strength of the curds depends on the type of coagulation. Most commercially produced cheeses use some type of rennet (animal, vegetable or microbial-derived) in their production.
The global dairy sector contributes an estimated 4 percent to the total global anthropogenic green house gas emissions. Producing 1 kg of cheddar cheese requires an average of 10,000 Liters of fresh water. Additionally, many individuals cannot digest and metabolize lactose. In these individuals enteric bacteria ferment the lactose, resulting in various abdominal symptoms, which can include abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea, nausea, and acid reflux. Additionally, the presence of lactose and its fermentation products raises the osmotic pressure of the colon contents. 3.4% of children in the U.S.A. are reported to have allergies to dairy milks. Many individuals choose to avoid milk for ethical or religious reasons.
Non-dairy milks, including plant-derived milks avoid many of the environmental, food sensitivity, ethical and religious problems associated with dairy milk and they can be made free of lactose, making the generation of dairy substitutes using the plant derived milks attractive. However, rennet is not an effective agent for inducing non-dairy proteins or emulsions, including plant-derived milks, including almond milk, chestnut milk, pecan milk, hazelnut milk, cashew milk, pine nut milk, and walnut milk, to curdle. Consequently, traditional cheese making techniques have not been successfully used to produce non-dairy cheese replicas.
Flavor and aroma in dairy cheese results in part from the degradation of lactose, proteins and fats, carried out by ripening agents, which include: bacteria and enzymes in the milk, bacterial cultures added during the cheese-making process, rennet, other proteases, lipases, added molds and/or yeasts and bacteria and fungi that opportunistically colonize the cheese during ripening and aging.
Cheese replicas made principally of non-dairy ingredients are commercially available. Most of these cheese replicas include some dairy ingredients, for example, casein. Some commercially available cheese replicas contain no animal products. These include fermented cheese replicas made from nut milks from which insoluble carbohydrates have not been effectively removed, and made without using a protein crosslinking agent and several products in which a starch is a principal ingredient or containing agar, carrageenan and tofu to provide the desired texture. Most tasters consider none of the currently available cheese replicas to adequately replicate the taste, aroma and mouthfeel of dairy cheeses.
Complex carbohydrates in currently available cheese replicas made from nut milks have unfavorable effects on the texture, resulting in a product with a grainy mouthfeel and lacking the creaminess of dairy cheeses.
Starches that comprise the major gelling agent in many currently available cheese replicas lead to a relatively high carbohydrate content, which may be undesirable to consumers, for example those wishing to limit carbohydrate intake.
Because of these deficiencies, there is currently no cheese replica that is acceptable to most consumers as an alternative to traditional dairy cheeses.
Thus, it is clear that there is a great need in the art for an improved method and system for producing non-dairy cheese replicas while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of the cheese replicas that have previously been available to consumers.